Official Secrets Acts

Famous quotes containing the words official, secrets and/or acts:

    “All official institutions of language are repeating machines: school, sports, advertising, popular songs, news, all continually repeat the same structure, the same meaning, often the same words: the stereotype is a political fact, the major figure of ideology.”
    —Roland Barthes (1915–1980)

    “I have old women’s secrets now
    That had those of the young;
    Madge tells me what I dared not think
    When my blood was strong....”
    —William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

    “It is not enough to ask, ‘Will my act harm other people?’ Even if the answer is No, my act may still be wrong, because of its effects on other people. I should ask, ‘Will my act be one of a set of acts that will together harm other people?’ The answer may be Yes. And the harm to others may be great. If this is so, I may be acting very wrongly, like the Harmless Torturers.”
    —Derek Parfit (b. 1943)